4 Tips to Increase Lead Generation for Financial Advisors
No matter what methods you’ve used to build your practice so far, one thing’s for certain: technology is changing the way people find financial advisors.
Cold calling and word of mouth may have helped you build a solid book of business. But if growth is your firm’s primary goal, you’ll likely need to embrace the power of lead generation. In fact, 39% of financial advisors say lead generation is their marketing focus this year.
In this article, we’ll discuss four ways to improve lead generation for financial advisors from digital marketing to referral strategies. By implementing these tips into your practice, you’ll have the “secret ingredients” needed to bring more qualified leads to your inbox without spending hours of extra time on outreach.
Tip #1: Increase referrals
What’s one of the most effective ways to drive leads to your inbox? By giving your clients something tangible they can take home and talk about with their friends and family.
It can be challenging for a client to quantify the value an advisor brings to their life, especially when you look beyond returns and portfolio performance. But giving your clients something they actually want to discuss and share with others is one of the surest ways to increase referrals.
For example, Nitrogen Risk Assessments help clients take their financial well-being into their own hands — and walk away with something quantitative to discuss with both their advisor and family members.
For RIAs looking to grow in 2023, this is a huge opportunity. Client referrals are the number one source of lead generation for advisors.
People want to know that they can trust you with their hard-earned wealth before opening up about their financial life and future goals. Knowing their friends, coworkers or family members have had positive experiences with you helps ease those worries and builds a level of trust right off the bat.
Tip #2: Improve your circle of influence relationships
A common source for leads that shouldn’t be taken for granted is your own circle of influence. Maybe you’re familiar with local CPAs, insurance agents, attorneys, real estate agents, or other professionals.
You might even send clients their way from time to time. If you find that they aren’t reciprocating, perhaps it’s time to give your professional network and colleagues proof of results.
To do right by their own clients, other professionals tend to be particular in their referrals. They want to know that you’re going to provide an exceptional level of service and work in their client’s best interest.
One way to showcase your expertise and level of commitment to the client experience is to share how you incorporate Nitrogen’s full suite of services into your practice.
From helping prospective clients self-qualify to automating touch points and providing tailored portfolio guidance, the full Nitrogen process helps advisors deliver an unparalleled client experience. Sharing this information with your circle of influence should help them feel more comfortable and confident in sending more leads your way.
Tip #3: Turn up the leads
If your website feels like a glorified business card, it’s time to turn it into a dynamic, lead-generation machine.
In 2023, it’s not enough to have your website looking like a Yellow Pages listing. While it may effectively tell your story and provide basic info about your firm, there are plenty of opportunities to build a two-way conversation with site visitors.
Your website should help readers self-identify as good potential clients by using tools like lead magnets and questionnaires.
Lead magnets are valuable pieces of content that a viewer typically has to provide certain information in order to access, like a name and email address. Lead magnets can be ebooks, fact sheets, case studies or checklists. But the most effective lead magnets are interactive with the viewer, such as quizzes or games.
A lead generation questionnaire is another way to create engagement with your website viewers. Again, this is a tool designed to improve lead generation for advisors. In order to access the questionnaire, viewers will need to provide their contact information. The benefit of a lead generation questionnaire is two-fold. As the advisor, you get access to a potential client’s contact information, and your lead gains valuable insight into their unique tolerance for risk.
Tip #4: Bring in more traffic
Once you turn your website into a lead generation machine, you can crank up the volume on traffic by creating and launching a content marketing campaign.
To start, take some time to define your ideal target audience. Create personas for them to better identify their pain points and determine how they spend their time online. For example, if your ideal client is a surgeon, their pain points may include adequate insurance coverage, student loan debt repayment, and managing their complex compensation package.
Once you know who you’re trying to attract and what issues they’re facing, you can develop a few pieces of targeted content — blogs, videos, checklists, etc. Follow best SEO practices to help boost your position in the right search engine results, and promote your content wherever possible.
If you’ve been collecting names and emails through your lead magnets and quizzes, you might find it most useful to share your content in a weekly email newsletter. Or, if you’re focused on growing your social media presence, sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook may be a great place to start.
Discover the premier lead generation tool for advisors
The long-term success of your firm is dependent on your ability to continually grow and attract new, qualified leads. Yet, the manual, old-school way of obtaining clients is time-consuming and lacks personalization. But if you’re trying to double your leads without doubling your efforts, enhance your tech stack by incorporating Nitrogen’s solutions into your existing workflows.
Nitrogen offers integrated tools that are designed to help advisors attract new clients, close the deal, and deliver a tailored client experience.
Learn more about how to grow your business with the 100 Ideas to Grow Your Firm ebook.